Now yes: 2005 called and it wants its short-over-long layered look back. But hey, can’t I call it “retro”? Or at least say I am wearing it ironically?

After all, my tongue’s already firmly in cheek from wearing this vaguely nautical cardigan. Though the closest I get to sailing is eating Chips Ahoy, the stripey sweater had me at “perfect colorblocking for those with Rectangle/H shapes.”

But I’m dead serious when I say I’m thrilled with my new deep green pencil skirt—so much so that I’ve been breaking out old and new prints and solids to wear with it.

Including a top that called to me despite my ambivalence about:

its scale

its rather Grandma’s-Wamsutta-bedspread print

the way “tobacco” and “sunshine” defile its otherwise cucumber-cool shades

I’m thinking the dolman-sleeved 70s silhouette + silk jersey fabric flipped me into Persnickety Bohemian mode. Whatever the reason, I was in loooove the second I saw it, but I resisted for weeks before committing.

Others were not as taken with its charms.

Where did THAT come from?” asked a saucer-eyed Mr Vix.

Me: “Whaaaat?! This is one of my core pieces for fall. I know it’s a little sofa-y, but I think it’s pretty.”

Mr Vix: [Amish farmer silence]

My printed glory and I flounced off to the guest bedroom to read and wait for him to come to his senses. He claims he stopped by to ask what I was doing for dinner, but didn’t see me on the bed.

[Which reminds me: I still miss the guest room’s former deep blue paint. Problem was, it only looked good for 2-3 summertime months. After a few years I ceded that Northern light + gloomy climate + big tree = me on a ladder with a bucket of more-muted-without-the-flash caramel.]

Returning (mostly) to my comfort zone of solids, I decided to match up a denim pencil skirt with a deep blue-green cardigan, another of my new fall pieces. While I usually avoid hosting a hootenanny in my bosom zone, the neckline’s deep V and the ability to break up my torso with a strong inverted V at the bottom were compelling. Which made it easy to turn a blind eye to having a 3-D chest.

Between the floral print and the ruffled sweater, some might say my blind eye is getting a lot of exercise this fall.

5 Responses

Lovely colors! I realized that I have stashed a copy of your bedroom in blue in my “inspiration files” – it’s really gorgeous. The caramel is likely easier to live with, but doesn’t shine on the page so well. However, as a Seattlite currently living in northern Germany, I’ll never be able to do a room in that deep blue either – sigh.

The sweater is a great piece overall – fit, color, detail. Is it really blue-green? It reads on my monitor as a very nice sky blue.

I do love sharp contrast in a room but have to admit the caramel is nice to be in most of the year. Though I feel a bit like a brûlée-in-progress myself when the summer sun DOES show up in there!

Whenever I go to Southern California I think about which of my favorites shades might do well there. [It’s still about the space’s orientation, but….]

I’m afraid the sweater is suffering from my poor photography and the low lighting…though wearing it with that particular green scarf does skew it blue, while pairing it with blues highlights its greenish leanings.

I was cranky last night didn’t feel like messing around anymore than I already had — I wanted to shed work clothes for pjs, ha.

The color is a bit deeper, more like the detail shot here (top photo, far left):

…but not quite as deep as in the post’s photo showing the herringbone close up (that’s it on the far right).

I love your blues and greens. I definitely gravitate towards these shades, although somehow there is more teal than blue in my closet at the moment.
Frankly, I love the former blue of your guest room, but will absolutely take your word that it didn’t look good year-round. Funny, we hear plenty about reviewing paint shades at different times of day, but never anything about living with a swatch for 6 months before deciding!